EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Women’s Basketball opened its Ohio Valley Conference schedule with a 57-40 home victory against the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Thursday.
USI Women’s Basketball (7-2, 1-0 OVC) earned its fourth consecutive win in OVC openers and recorded its third overall win in a row. Following Thursday’s triumph, USI’s defense has held the opposition to under 60 points in the last three games and under 45 points in two of the last three.
The Screaming Eagles were led in scoring by senior guard Ali Saunders, who tallied a game-high 15 points. Playing in her second game of the season, freshman forward Channah Gannon recorded her second game in a row scoring in double figures with 11 points. Junior guard Sophia Loden added 10 points.
As a team, USI shot for just over 31 percent (19-60) with six three-pointers and over 86 percent (13-15) at the free-throw line. Little Rock, which dropped to 4-7 overall and 1-1 in OVC play, was held to only 30 percent (16-53) from the floor and below 12 percent (2-17) from three-point range.
In the opening minutes on Thursday, Little Rock grabbed an early 8-3 lead thanks to a couple of early threes, but the Screaming Eagles quickly answered back to knot the game up at nine midway through the opening quarter. Later in the first quarter, the Trojans went up by four, but USI took advantage of Little Rock turnovers and went 8-8 at the foul line to end the first quarter on a 9-0 run and jump in front, 20-15.
The Trojans closed the gap down to one by the seven-minute mark of the second quarter. However, the combination of junior forward Chloe Gannon and Channah Gannon pushed the Eagles to a seven-point advantage, 26-19, at the media timeout. A couple of minutes later, Channah Gannon and Saunders canned back-to-back triples to increase USI’s lead to double digits, 32-21. Sophomore guard Lexi Sepulveda tacked on another trey, while USI’s defense held Little Rock scoreless for the last four minutes of the first half to go into halftime with a 35-21 lead.
The 9-0 run that USI ended the first half on swelled to a 19-0 run, as the Screaming Eagles scored the first 10 points of the second half. Saunders reached double figures on a mid-range jumper, giving USI a 45-21 lead. Little Rock got into the second-half scoring column three and a minutes into the third period. Not long after, Channah Gannon scored to reach double digits for the second straight game. The Eagles continued to lean on their defense to maintain their 20-point advantage, leading 49-29 heading to the fourth quarter.
USI got off to a slow start in the fourth quarter, as Little Rock chipped away to climb within 11, 49-38. The Eagles snapped the run and got on the board three and a half minutes into the fourth on a jumper by Saunders. After the Trojans brought it within 11 with 6:45 left, USI held Little Rock scoreless until less than 40 seconds left in the game. Meanwhile, the Screaming Eagles added back onto its advantage to seal the conference-opening victory.
The Screaming Eagles get back after it for another Ohio Valley Conference contest on Saturday at 1 p.m. against Morehead State University inside Liberty Arena. Fans are encouraged to join the holiday spirit by wearing an ugly holiday sweater.
Saturday’s game can be seen with a subscription to ESPN+ and heard on The Spin 95.7 FM and WREF 97.7 FM. Tickets for all home games at Liberty Arena can be purchased online at usiscreamingeagles.com or the USI Ticket Office.
